In the middle of a 2+ week SLAM.. not making progress

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G

Geoffro

0
Jul 5, 2017
28
Montrose, MI
Here's a quick run down of what I've done over the past 16 days. My pool was basically a swamp. It was left over from the previous owner and last year I tried, but failed, to complete a SLAM. It was too late in the season for me to continue and I had other priorities. Fast forward to this year and you can imagine what I had to start with. Checked the water and had a CYA of 20 and a pH of 8.2. I didn't read clearly that I shouldn't start the SLAM until my pH was down. Anyway, I have been dumping gallons and gallons of bleach in this pool and watching it disappear. I'm certain I had ammonia from all the leaves decomposing. The pool started to clear up but very cloudy. I scooped 4 big bags of dead leaves from the middle where they had collected after I whirlpooled for a while. It seemed as if I was making progress and the chlorine was not dropping as fast.... until yesterday. I was at 8 at 9am so I added another gallon of 10% bleach. I wasn't going to be home until late that evening so I had my daughter add another gallon for good measure at 1pm. When I checked at 11pm, I had ZERO FC. Sigh... talk about disheartening!!

Today, I'm thinking... ok, I gotta start over AGAIN... the pH was high so lets get this down to where it needs to be. I bought some muriatic acid and planned on getting this back in action again. The water is hardly green at all... more blueish but completely cloudy. Anyway, I test pH and I was FLOORED to see it was down in the 6's!!! What the heck?!?!?! I did a search here and found out that the reaction of bleach with the ammonia would cause the pH to drop. Sigh... ok. So, here's what I did tonight....

Added 2 gallons of 10% bleach
Turned my jet so that the water is sorta bubbling... not vigorously but a clear disruption on the surface.
Added 20 oz of some pH increaser I had from the previous owner.

Thoughts on where I go from here?

Oh... should I do a deep clean on my sand filter? I haven't done that yet and it seems as if I'm not getting much flow if I run the filter for a long period of time even though the pressure doesn't increase much.

Thanks!!
Geoff
 
1) Get all the solid debris out of the pool and Deep Clean the sand filter.
2) Get the pH to 7.2
3) Go buy a lot of bleach or liquid chlorine. Just the plain, unscented, un-thickened, non-CLoramax stuff from the market or Wallyworld
4) Follow the SLAM directions, testing your FC (just that, not the CCs yet) up to hourly and dose with enough liquid chlorine to bring it up to SLAM level based on this chart: [FC/CYA][/FC/CYA]
5) Repeat as often as you can brushing daily

The more often you test and brush, the faster it will go. Backwash your filter when it hits 20-25% higher than the clean filter pressure.

6) post picture on TFP to receive encouragement and support


Maddie :flower:
 
One other note: Make sure you keep your pump running 24/7 If you are not seeing a pressure rise, but the flow is decreasing, you need to check things on the suction side. Maybe a blocked skimmer basket, or pump basket or something stuck in the line.
 
pabeader said:
One other note: Make sure you keep your pump running 24/7 If you are not seeing a pressure rise, but the flow is decreasing, you need to check things on the suction side. Maybe a blocked skimmer basket, or pump basket or something stuck in the line.
Click to expand...


Yeah, I'm going to deep clean first and go from there. I have no problem with flow when I'm on recirculate so there's nothing between the skimmer and jet. It has to be something in the filter. Hoping the deep clean does it!!

- - - Updated - - -

rammy said:
keep scooping, I had a bunch of "stuff" in mine as well and it took several sessions to get it to where i could run my vacuum. The LC will work better if its not trying to breakdown the big stuff. You will get there.
Click to expand...

Yep, I figured that out too. I've scooped a few more times and I'm not picking up hardly anything at all. I have a robot pool cleaner that is picking up some small stuff but nothing that's filling the basket. Hoping I'm getting there!!
 
Deep cleaned the filter today. WOW!!! Took about 3 hours and I believe I could have done more to it. Couldn't wait any longer because I have other commitments today. Put it all back together and started to filter. Funny thing is my pressure was higher than what it was prior to cleaning!! We'll see how it works. Anyway, I tested the water and here's what I have right now.

pH - 7.0
TA - 190

Nothing for FC as I didn't want to start the SLAM process until I know I'm good to do so. I have the water aerating right now to help with the pH and, hopefully, the TA. A

Any other helpful hints??
 
Texas Splash said:
The pH of 7.0 is fine since you're going to SLAM. The increased FC level will pull the pH up with it. So now is the time to verify your CYA so you know what FC SLAM/Shock level to be at, then SLAM!
SLAM Process
[FC/CYA][/FC/CYA]
Click to expand...


Ok, checked and my CYA was less than 20. I figured that's what it would be since I was at 20 when I originally started my first SLAM a few weeks ago. I dosed some liquid chlorine per the chart and I'll check it in a few hours.
 
Ok, here's a pic of where we're at as of now. It's a pretty teal blue color. LOL

062318.jpg
 

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It would be good to ensure your CYA is at least 30. That will provide adequate protection to your FC (12) from the sun during the SLAM.
Adding CYA:
To increase CYA via granular stabilizer, place the required amount as calculated by the Poolmath calculator into a white sock and place in the poolside skimmer basket. For those concerned about suction flow to the pump, suspending the sock near a return jet or from a floating device will also suffice. Best never to allow undissolved granules to rest directly against the pool surface. Squeeze the sock periodically to help it dissipate. Once dissolved, consider your CYA adjusted to that programmed (target) level. CYA test readings should show a rise in 24-48 hours, however some pools may experience a longer delay to fully register. Best to confirm final CYA in about 5-7 days before adding any more stabilizer/conditioner.
Click to expand...
 
Latest update: Most of the day yesterday, I kept an eye on the FC. I was checking every 30-40 min. At first, I was getting a lot of drop in FC. Eventually, I got to the point where it was holding an FC of 12 for a couple hours. Went to bed and checked this morning. It had dropped to 8. Not bad I figured for that time frame. Added enough to get it back to 12 and went to work. I just checked it at 3:30pm and the FC was back down to 4. Since I was that low, I figured I'd check the pH and CYA again. Here's where I'm at:

FC - 4
CYA - 30
pH - 6.8 (probably less since it's lighter than the lowest reading on the scale)

I added bleach to get it back to 12 FC. I'm good on CYA. Do I try and bring the pH up now? I'm guessing I still had some ammonia in the water to bring it down like that.

Thanks!
 
If the FC drops below 10 again, it might be good to bump it up to at least 7.0. Other than that, your FC is obviously trying to neutralize something in the water. We understand work and tasks get in the way, so do your best to maintain the FC level and hopefully that significant FC drop will begin to slow down.
 
Geoffro said:
Latest update: Most of the day yesterday, I kept an eye on the FC. I was checking every 30-40 min. At first, I was getting a lot of drop in FC. Eventually, I got to the point where it was holding an FC of 12 for a couple hours. Went to bed and checked this morning. It had dropped to 8. Not bad I figured for that time frame. Added enough to get it back to 12 and went to work. I just checked it at 3:30pm and the FC was back down to 4. Since I was that low, I figured I'd check the pH and CYA again. Here's where I'm at:

FC - 4
CYA - 30
pH - 6.8 (probably less since it's lighter than the lowest reading on the scale)

I added bleach to get it back to 12 FC. I'm good on CYA. Do I try and bring the pH up now? I'm guessing I still had some ammonia in the water to bring it down like that.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

One other thought.... you said you thought you had ammonia.... that is a chlorine hog. I had the problem beginning of last year - clear water and 40 gallons of liquid chlorine later couldn't hold any FC. Got an ammonia test kit from pet store and sure enough that was it. Took me another 10 gallons and finally it held. So depending on how much ammonia it may be worth draining a bunch of the water.
 
Ski said:
One other thought.... you said you thought you had ammonia.... that is a chlorine hog. I had the problem beginning of last year - clear water and 40 gallons of liquid chlorine later couldn't hold any FC. Got an ammonia test kit from pet store and sure enough that was it. Took me another 10 gallons and finally it held. So depending on how much ammonia it may be worth draining a bunch of the water.
Click to expand...

No, he can't have ammonia as he's holding chlorine between tests. Ammonia would prevent that.

Maddie :flower:
 
YippeeSkippy said:
No, he can't have ammonia as he's holding chlorine between tests. Ammonia would prevent that.

Maddie :flower:
Click to expand...

Good point! I was holding. Earlier I wasn't. Must just be all the algae. :D

On a side note, I'm still at it but don't seem to be making any "visual" progress. My FC is dropping... slowly, but it's dropping. I keep topping off and bringing it up to 12. The filter seems to be working as the pressure went up to 21-22, backwashed a bunch of stuff out, and now back to 12-13.

Sigh.... It's really hard to keep at this and not see results. I feel like I'm just burning money.
 
This is the tough part. Being so close. One of two things is occurring:
1 - Either there was so much algae in the water and/or plumbing that it's still neutralizing it
2 - You have an algae patch somewhere unidentified. This is where you can never be too critical inspecting anything that could hold water and hide algae. Ladders, steps, behind lights, drains, under the skimmer lid, just anything. All areas have to be brushed/scrubbed to penetrate the biofilm covering that developed.

The filter psi increase tells us something is being captured, so that's a good sign. It's also good that your FC is falling as expected and not crashing exceptionally low. Just throwing this out there quickly because I didn't go back to look, but if the sand has been used for a season or two and hasn't been deep cleaned, that might be a good idea as well. Deep Cleaning a Sand Filter
 
Texas Splash said:
This is the tough part. Being so close. One of two things is occurring:
1 - Either there was so much algae in the water and/or plumbing that it's still neutralizing it
2 - You have an algae patch somewhere unidentified. This is where you can never bee too critical inspecting anything that could hold water and hide algae. Ladders, steps, behind lights, drains, under the skimmer lid, just anything. All areas have to be brushed/scrubbed to penetrate the biofilm covering that developed.

The filter psi increase tells us something is being captured, so that's a good sign. It's also good that your FC is falling as expected and not crashing exceptionally low. Just throwing this out there quickly because I didn't go back to look, but if the sand has been used for a season or two and hasn't been deep cleaned, that might be a good idea as well. Deep Cleaning a Sand Filter
Click to expand...

I deep cleaned last week. I couldn't believe all the stuff that came out!! It was "fairly" clean when I put it back together. I didn't have anymore time to work on it that day. I've got some free time coming up this weekend and next week so maybe I'll do it again. I'll get this S.O.B. eventually!! LOL
 

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